Asian Pacific American Heritage Month events scheduled for April
May is the official month designated nationally for recognizing the rich culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but like many universities, Carolina moves up the celebration to April, when more faculty, staff and students are on campus.
A look at Southern kitsch, a talk by architect Maya Lin, a concert of music by women composers and poetry readings are some of the ways the Carolina community can celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in April.
May is the official month designated nationally for recognizing the rich culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but like many universities, Carolina moves up the celebration to April, when more faculty, staff and students are on campus.
The month of events begins with a “State of Asian America” address on March 31 by Heidi Kim, Asian American Center director and professor of English and comparative literature in the College of Arts & Sciences. Seats for the in-person event at 5:30 p.m. are already filled, butregistration is availablefor the virtual experience.
Acomplete listing of programmingis available on the Asian American Center website. Here are some event highlights:
- Southern Kitsch, 5:30 p.m. April 7, Genome Sciences G010.Visiting scholar Leslie Bow looks at the history of the personified household object in the 21stcentury: the Asian figure as saltshaker, kitchen timer or home decor. Bow isVilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- An Evening with Maya Lin, 5:30 p.m. April 12, Mandela Auditorium, FedEx Global Education Center.From the Vietnam Memorial, which she designed as an undergraduate student at Yale, to the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama and the Women’s Table at Yale, Maya Lin has made history part of the landscape. The event sponsored by the Frey Foundation is free and open to the public. Registration is required for those attending virtually via Zoom; a link will be provided closer to the event date.
- Southeast Asian Poet Panel, noon-2 p.m. April 22, FedEx Global Education Center Room 4003.North Carolina poets Ina Cariño and Eric Tran will read selected poetry and host a question-and-answer session. Cariño is the winner of the 2021 Alice James Award for “Feast,” forthcoming from Alice James Books in March 2023, and was selected in 2021 as one of four winners of the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest. Tran is a queer Vietnamese poet and the author of “Mouth, Sugar and Smoke” (Diode Editions, forthcoming 2022) and “The Gutter Spread Guide to Prayer” (Autumn House Press). He is a resident physician in psychiatry in Asheville.
- Her Story: Journey into the Musical Worlds of Women Composers, 7:30 p.m. April 23-24, Swain Hall Black Box Theatre. Award-winning Korean-American violinist Sunmi Chang and pianist Clara Yang will present a concert of music by women composers. This performance will feature works by Amy Beach (19th century) and Florence Price (20th century) as well as a newly commissioned sonata by Liliya Ugay that is a modern reflection of these two composers.
